Maggie Gyllenhaal Just Learned Her Real (Jewish) Name
Getty Images
Meet Margalit Gyllenhaal. You probably know her as Maggie.
The actress revealed in an interview with ABC that she didn’t learn her full name until she was 35. In case you were wondering, Margalit means ‘pearl’ in Hebrew.
How does that happen? Well, after marrying to Peter Sarsgaard 2009, Gyllenhaal says she wanted to change her name in her personal life (professionally, she stayed “Gyllenhaal”). When she started the process last year, she found she needed proof of her birth (as one does). After much searching, her parents finally found her birth certificate and magically remembered what they actually named their daughter. Which was not Maggie, to everybody’s surprise.
“They didn’t remember,” Maggie said in an interview with ABC News. “My mother still insists my name is not Margalit.”
Still, her Wikipedia article does not lie — it now lists her full name as Margalit Ruth “Maggie” Gyllenhaal.
ABC News | More ABC News Videos
[h/t Jewcy]
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and the protests on college campuses.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
